I actually wasn’t quite sure what he meant, noticing that “LAX” did appear in the title. Virgin operates both the 744 and the A340 on the LAX-LHR run. Not sure what time they depart Heathrow, but the 744 leaves LAX in the afternoon sometime and the A340 leaves around 8-9 p.m. And yes, AA and UA do indeed operate the LAX-LHR run as Bhoy mentioned. Once upon a time, they had more frequencies than just the current daily each.

Back in 95, there were still lots of International carriers that still allowed smoking on their flights. Perhaps that particular seat, was just overlooked by the gound crew. Big whoop. No fault of the airline. As far as Air France goes, they are not the only airline that uses an all white or primarily white livery. JAL’s livery is primarily white, yet their planes typically are in immaculate condition, both inside and out. My cousin who was a ramp worker at LAX recently can attest to this. Even the cargo holds in their 747 classics were spotless. LH and AC planes usually seem pretty clean. QF’s planes are always clean, and I can further attest to their cleanliness as I took the SYD ramp tour, 2 747’s were being washed at QF’s 2 wash bays. As far as AF’f planes being used 18 hours of the day and don’t have enough time to be washed, yeah, so? Other airlines don’t have that kind of utilization rate?

If they fly into LAX, it must be just recently them doing that. I’ve never seen one of their aircraft there and I’ve seen them all.

When did NZ last allow smoking on their flights? I flew them from LAX to SYD in 99 and it was a non-smoking flight. Also, were we talking about interiors here? If so, I’ve flown NZ countless times and their interiors are absolutely immaculate. Both in business and in economy. By the way Comet, how many airlines have footrests in economy? Maybe Virgin, but NZ definitely does.

Actually, this is very surprising of KLM. Usually the examples I have come across throughout the years, were relatively clean. The only time I can remember actually seeing a clean AF plane, however, was circa ’99 at IAD I saw a 777 right around the time they had just taken delivery of the type. It didn’t have enough time to accumulate any grease at that stage!

Correct me if I’m wrong, but some years ago I flew KLM, and they had white tails on their aircraft. Did they make a change to black tails?

The taller tailplane makes sense, to compensate for the shorter fuselage length and give better performance/stability. The 747SP had a taller tailplane than the rest of the 747 series to compensate for its short fuselage.

If a particular airport were only to handle a single A380-operated airline, then I agree remote stands would be the most economical option. However, how likely is that? My guess is that the 10 or so initial operators of the A380, will have flights from the other ‘biggies’ going into their home airports as well. QF for instance, I’m sure SIA and Emirates will send the big boy into SYD. I’m sure every A380 operated airline will fly theirs into SIN. I’m sure Virgin, Cathay and QF will fly theirs into LAX, even though there won’t be a “hometown” airline operating them. I’m sure you’ll get a few of those guys operating them into JFK and LHR, among others, as well.